"Stateside" vaccines not enough for Filipinos, says Palace
"Stateside" anti-COVID-19 vaccines or those sourced from the United States are not sufficient for Filipinos due to limited supply, Malacanang said on Tuesday.
This was after a survey of the Social Weather Stations showed that 63 percent of the Filipinos have preferred to use vaccines from the US while only 19 percent said they have wanted jabs from China; 13 percent from Japan, Australia, and United Kingdom; and 12 percent from Canada and Russia.
"We understand that in our history, Filipinos admire more the stateside. But our message is, even if we already have small amount of stateside vaccine, they are not sufficient for all," Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a televised press briefing.
Since there is a limited supply of vaccines from the US, he urged the Filipinos to have themselves vaccinated with the available brands of vaccines.
So far, about 193,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine under COVAX facility have arrived in the country. Pfizer is the only US manufactured vaccine in the country so far. Majority of the vaccine doses that are available in the Philippines came from China's Sinovac.
In the same press briefing, National Task Force Against COVID-19 Deputy Chief Implementer Vivencio Dizon said that the strategy of the Philippines is to have various portfolio of vaccines.
Currently, the available vaccine brands in the country are those manufactured by Sinovac of China, AstraZeneca of United Kingdom, Gamaleya of Russia, and Pfizer of the United States.
"Because of the limited supply of the vaccines, we have to have various (brands) of vaccine to be ordered and bought," he said, adding that if the Philippines would be dependent only to a particular vaccine, the supply could be affected.
Dizon reiterated that all the vaccine brands have the capability to prevent severe COVID-19 and deaths.
He said there is a need to educate more the Filipinos about the vaccines whatever the brands are. Celerina Monte/DMS
